The winter seemed to have come early but I think I was prepared. After all, I already had my winter jacket and mobile heater. My friends who went on exchange were back and it was nice to have them back. The first day I came back, we had movie night that night. I decided to sit at the back since I was sleepy. I think we watched Bad Genius. It was good to be back.
I know from last year's experience that although winter seems the best season to curl up under the blankets, over here, its the busiest season with many winter-related events. We went to IUJ Ski Day and managed to take some nice photos. We were being borareru and didn't participate in skiing or snowboarding except for one of our brave friends who tried snowboarding. She looked cool with her snowboard. We took the bus to the ski resort but decided to walk back because the weather was nice.
The Tokamachi Snow Festival was another event we went to but we went on the last day and although the snow storm wasn't as bad as the one the day before, it did snow heavily that day. There weren't many snow sculptures as last year but we did manage to eat the yummy roast beef and my friends got to drink amasake (rice wine). On the way back, we decided to stop by Rara to buy groceries and bento. When we wanted to go back, we found out that the train service was stopped due to the heavy snowfall. Luckily my friends checked and found that there was a bus we could take to go back.
The winter season wouldn't be complete without the Ojiya Balloon Festival. We had so much fun there last year, we decided to go again. Unfortunately, due to the bad weather, the balloon ride was cancelled. Some of our university mates told us on the train as we started our journey to Ojiya in the morning. We then decided to go to the mall in Nagaoka as did many other IUJ students who had originally set out to go to Ojiya. At Riverside Senshu, we had lunch at Ikinari Steak and it was really delicious! I guess sometimes, things happen for a good reason haha. We went back to Ojiya in the afternoon hoping to see the fireworks but we barely made in time and saw a very quickly display as we exited the Ojiya station. We ran to the festival grounds hoping the fireworks display would continue but by the time we arrived it had stopped :( We then met up with our other friends we were supposed to meet and headed home together.All this time, we as second-years were supposed to work on our thesis. I did but a lot of our time as you can see from the above was devoted to going out :P Nonetheless, I think I did do a lot this term as I had been slacking a lot during summer and autumn.
I also found out I had counted the subjects wrong: I had taken two subjects in autumn and am now taking two subjects in winter, thinking I only had to take one subject in spring but it turns out I need to take two subjects in spring term as well. I wanted to just take only one subject in spring so that I could focus on my thesis but that plan didn't pan out.
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